As life spans increase and the aging population grows larger, many people are opting out of traditional nursing home or retirement home situations and opting to remain in their homes as they age. Persons 65 years or older currently number more than 40+ million represented approximately 13% of the U.S. population, or about one in every eight Americans. By 2030, there will be about 72.1 million older persons, more than twice their number back in 2000. People 65+ represented 12.4% of the population in the year 2000 but are expected to grow to be 19% of the population by 2030.
Research has shown that 50% of so called Boomers and 72% of adults age 50+ want to “live in place” meaning that they would prefer to retire in their current homes rather than moving to more conventional retirement home facilities. However, most current homes are not designed for the needs of the aging, elderly and/or impaired and independently upgrading such homes is generally impractical and expensive. Ideally, it would be beneficial to meet aging needs/improvements before a health or aging need crisis occurs such as a health need affecting mobility or dexterity.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a way to upgrade and improve homes and businesses to make them more accessible, useable and sustainable so that occupants will have the benefit of a greater quality of life over an extended time period.